MLA '20: Make Your Case to Attend (Virtually!)
Build your case to attend the MLA '20 vConference by focusing on the benefits of your attendance at online sessions, such as:
- Program Sessions
- Latest trends in technology
- Best practices in service
- Effective leadership techniques
- Greater confidence and increased competencies
- Ways to enhance intellectual growth
- Ideas to improve services at your library
- New, innovative resources for efficiency and cost savings
Demonstrate your commitment and service to the association. Are you:
- Presenting a paper or poster
- Serving as a speaker or moderator
- Volunteering on a committee or in a caucus
- Serving as an officer of the association, a committee, or caucus
- Serving on the editorial board for an MLA publication
- Serving on a task force
- Working with a new initiative or volunteering with MLA planning committees
- Sharing the results of your work with your colleagues
- Networking, benchmarking, and sharing ideas with fellow librarians
- Getting involved in research or collaborative efforts for association improvement
Emphasize the benefits to your institution; such as:
- The opportunity for you to be the first librarian from your institution to attend an MLA meeting
- The publicity that your institution will receive from you presenting a paper or poster
- The advantage of your ability to compare vendor products and services to make effective purchase decisions
- The opportunity for your professional development, which improves your competence and capacity building
- The opportunity for you to explore ideas, learn new skills, and translate these skills into tangible training at your organization
- The return-on-investment that your institution will receive from your attendance
Need help convincing your boss to let you attend MLA '20 vConference & Exihibits?
Use the Make Your Case Worksheet to develop your evidence-based talking points.
Communication phrases you can use for non-library bosses might include:
- My challenges include achieving a balance between print and digital resources, selecting the best evidenced-based resources, and maintaining the most cost-effective library operations possible.
- To be effective, I need to be in tune with the latest trends in library management and in sync with disruptive technologies that will affect future library decisions.
- MLA ’20 vConference is the one meeting that I consider absolutely essential to my professional development. My role as a health sciences librarian is to ensure that all of the health professionals in our organization have access to information at the point of need.
- Attending MLA '20 vConference will help me build quality, knowledge-based skills by exposing me to new ideas, best practices, and lessons learned. I will also have the opportunity to be introduced to experts in the field and to other colleagues in my field.
- I’m confident that I’ll be able to share what I’ll learn with our full library team in a meaningful way and gain hands-on experience with new information, products, and services.
- If you give me the go-ahead—and I sincerely hope you will—you can expect me to return from the MLA '20 vConference with loads of practical ideas that I can put to work right away.
- Please let me know if you would like additional information, or visit the Medical Library Association website at www.mlanet.org for details about my professional organization and its activities.